001All right, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. Start with roll call. Director Anan Wubo here. >> Director Assad Lucas >> here. >> Director Batistelli >> here. Director Goldstein >> here. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. [laughter] >> Director Anan Wubo. I >> Director Assad Lucas. >> I >> Director Batistelli. >> I director Goldstein. >> I >> Okay. Um, rise if you are able to for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, superintendent update. >> So, earlier tonight, uh, we spent some time in work session talking about
002the latest with Thunder Vista, which remains probably the biggest issue, the heaviest weight that we're working through as a leadership team, not only in this building, but with leaders throughout the system. Challenging circumstance. I think words not out now out on the street that we're not going to be able to return to Thunder Vista this semester. due to some fixes that still need to happen in that building with the electrical system to make it safe and to prevent recurrence of similar circumstances down the road. So, that's challenging, not the answer we wanted, but it's the answer that we need uh to move forward with and we're committed to getting that school fixed up in a high quality way and open for business in the fall. So, that's the biggest thing going on in the system
003now. will be back in the space, many of us, on Friday evening to talk to the Thunder Vista community about the why behind that, answer more questions uh and see what we need to do to make this longer transition than we hoped work well for kids, families, and community. Beyond that, the legislative session is up and running, as one of our colleagues knows firsthand. spent some time last Friday speaking to a joint hearing of the Senate and House Education Committees and the the theme was around school funding and finance. I was part of a panel along with the CFO from Douglas County and the CFO from Steamboat Springs talking about funding issues. And the themes that I talked about included number one, acknowledgement that the state's in a tough budget situation. This is the third
004time they're going to have to make big cuts to the budget in the last 12 months. They cut about a billion dollars last spring is my recollection. They cut close to a billion dollars in a special session in August or September after the big beautiful bill. And the most recent estimates I've seen is for an $850 million cut for 2627. And so part of my remarks was acknowledgement that the state's been in tough times before, has made reductions to K12. I hope that they won't make reductions to K12 this time, but if they do, I hope that they're transparent and communicating what's going on. I think one of the challenges that I identified in my remarks is that the governor continues to talk about how Colorado is fully funding K12 education. And I think that's
005highly misleading, confusing, uh not accurate given that we've got two independent studies submitted to the legislature in late 2023 at their request finding the state underfunds public education in the state by 3.4 to$4.1 billion a year. I think it's misleading given the huge increases in Milwaukee overrides that have transpired over the last 7 to 10 years in particular, but over the last 30 years uh more broadly where overrides have gone from 7 and a half% of what you might get under the school finance act to more than 40% of an add-on in communities like Boulder. And so those kinds of things wouldn't be happening if we had a fully funded system of K12. And then there's a lot of communities that have sales tax measures in place. Whether it's Aspen, Steamboat, Woodland Park, Montros, lots
006of communities are finding ways outside of the school finance act and state funding to get their systems better resourced so that they can compensate staff appropriately and provide programming that people want us to provide. So that was one of the themes. There's a lot of uh concern raised by all of us that day about a proposal the governor released the night before calling for changes in how we um count students and fund school districts when they are declining in enrollment which is true of about 50 plus of the 178 school districts in the state are declining in enrollment right now. A couple years ago, we had five-year averaging. That went to four-year averaging for this year. It's contemplated it would go to three years next year and hopefully uh indefinitely stay at 3 years. And
007the governor's proposed to reduce that to two years and has also proposed that some of the specific ownership tax that we collect when people buy and license their boats, their cars, their RVs. Right now there's about $ 8.1 million of that. um that the governor wants to snag away from us and from other school districts that generate those uh revenues off of levies uh assessed from levy overrides and bonds and instead apply that toward the school finance act formula and counted toward the local share. It would be a cut to us and it would be a cut to all but 20 districts in the state is my understanding of the analysis that Gina has done. For us it would be an $ 8.1 million cut. I think statewide it' be a $220 million plus cut.
008So, we spoke against uh that proposal that day. We talked about the misinformation that gets circulated by by the governor and and allies about in declining enrollment. Uh he claims that we are funding phantom students and we walk through some practical examples of how you balance your budget when you're declining in enrollment. and often you're not in a position to cut teachers uh especially at elementary without having unacceptable class sizes. So, I guess if there's an overriding theme, it's like we just want the governor and the legislature to be honest in their messaging and the fully funded phantom students. Uh, we can take your SOT and put it in a different column and not call it a cut is all a bunch of uh gamesmanship that misleads our communities about the needs that we have.
009And that was the big theme that day. would look at opportunities for our broader community to to weigh in with their perspective about these proposed changes. And I'm sure this session I will be spending a lot of time at the legislature and with uh others down there trying to avoid those kinds of changes which would be very harmful to our district. That's it for now. >> Thank you, Chris. All right. Um board of education comments, recognitions, awards, and vision. We'll start with um Ike. >> Thank you, President Goldstein. Um just want to say welcome back to the new year. Um hope everyone had a relaxing and safe holiday break. Um three things I'd like to to talk about. One to the Thunder Vista community. I it's incredibly unfortunate what has happened. Um we see you,
010we hear you, and uh we support you fully. Um, [clears throat] number two, um, I've had a chance to start visiting schools in District 3. I'm going to be at Horizon on Friday and I will be at Rocky Top tomorrow. And last week I was at Silver Creek. I had a chance to, it was kind of a homecoming because three of my four kids have graduated from Silver Creek. All four will go to Horizon, for instance, that sort of thing. So, um, Principal Oliver welcomed me into the school and it was a great opportunity to catch up with, uh, all the teachers there. I sat in on a performance monitoring exercise, which was really good to see how data and collaboration is being used to support our kids. Uh, number three, I had a chance
011to go to the Adams 12 Honor Band concert about two weeks ago. My youngest son actually played French horn. And uh let me tell you, our kids are amazing. After only two days, uh all these kids from different schools, high school and middle school, were able to be playing like they've been playing together for weeks and months on end. Um it was it was wonderful to see and wonderful to listen to, and obviously I was proud of my boy. Um I I could tell you I'm a STEM person. I I think everyone knows that. Um but I I think that um if anything with the educators who were supporting the kids, got them playing together, um Principal Fleeman opening up Horizon High School, um band director Tim Daly and band director um uh Duran, uh
012those guys are amazing and and quite frankly, I think that uh we could use a few more musicians, artists, and and writers in our society. And I think right here in Adams 12, we give our kids that opportunity um through through what we provide and I think we should continue to provide it. So again, it was a wonderful day. Um and uh thank you. Yeah. For for all that you guys do. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Paula. So I would like to wish everyone a belated Martin Luther King um birthday. Um congratul or happiness, I guess, is the right word. Um, and then I always want to try to share a a a good quote. This is from his strength and love or strength to love um book
013and it's one of my favorite um darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate and only love can do that. I like to try to center a quote on, you know, important holidays like that so we remember what the focus should be. Um, I want to thank the Thunder Vista community for your patience. I know this has really been trying, but I also want to emphasize that the number one goal is always student and staff safety. Um, and I listening into the conversations, that's what what I've been hearing is the centering of that above all else. Um, I visited Stellar Elementary School last Friday and uh, unfortunately I didn't get to hang out with the kids like I usually do, but I had a great conversation with Principal
014Buck. Um, and I would like to share some of her highlights um, that she really wanted to celebrate with everyone about Stellar Elementary. they continue their data uh continues to be uh above average high achieving um particularly with their uh English uh emergent bilingual student population. Um they have set up a system where their teams have time together uh each week um and they know that during a given month they'll get to touch base with all of the various stakeholders. the teachers will meet with the learning uh learning support services um the uh emergent bilingual educators and so on and so forth. Um they had a fantastic cultural night um and they also offered a family fun afternoon. They are looking forward to their one book one school. They're going to do that for the
015first time this year. And I suggested the wild robot and if you agree with me you can write to them and tell them you second it. But that is a fabulous book >> at Stellar. Yeah, at Stellar. [laughter] Um, and yeah, it's just it it's always wonderful to get in there and hear what's going on and what their their concerns are. Um, final items, we met with the certified >> classified >> or I'm sorry, classified staff um, whoever whispered that, thank you. Uh, a week or two ago, I can't even remember at this point. And it was a wonderful meeting. I always appreciate their cander and honesty about um the areas of opportunity that they've identified and I I take those to heart. And finally, I love going to that band performance, but it seems
016like since I got back from break, I'm always a day late and a dollar short. That is my mantra for the month. And so I realized 15 minutes before and that is always a really popular concert. And I just realized, oh, there's no way I'm going to get a seat at this point. So, um I didn't get to attend this year. But thank you. >> And the reason I asked on the school is because a couple years ago, Cherry Drive did the Wild Robot. >> Yeah. >> And were you on the board then? >> May have been. >> And they had somebody dress up as a wild robot. It was It was kind of fun. >> Isn't that when we read a chapter? >> We each read a chapter. Yeah. They used to have us
017read a chapter and they'd piece it together. All right. Director Sal Lucas. Good evening everyone and thank you for being here this evening um in person or online. I hope everyone had a nice winter break and holiday season. Um so as it was has been shared um [clears throat] we met with the uh CSEA representative board representatives last Wednesday. Um I really always enjoy that meeting. Get to hear of what um is working, what we can do better as a system, um [clears throat] what we can do differently. And it it's al always centered around how we best serve students. And um what I really appreciate too is [clears throat] just getting to hear the stories, but I always look at the theme of how they focus on relationships and just the the relationships all
018of our staff build with kids and how meaningful they are um [snorts] in so many different ways. And you know, one of the stories I shared is something that seems really um minimal but is actually huge for some kids, but my youngest has sensory stuff and the um nutritional services staff at elementary school knows that. I've never shared that. They've probably learned the hard way, but anyway, um they know that. And so when something's on the menu that I might have forgot to pack his lunch, they will support him in that. Um, but again, that that happens across our district in so many ways between our classrooms, um, custodial, preschool, um, transportation, maintenance, uh, base PE, all of it. And so thank you everyone for all that you do to ensure our kids get served
019the way that they deserve. Um, I also want to give a big shout out to [sighs] all the staff, um, you know, here at the admin, to school leadership, to educators again, then to support staff, to classified staff, uh, with the Thunder Vista situation. >> [gasps] >> um the community, families, students, everyone has come together so well and worked so collaboratively make this, you know, make a really hard situation as smooth as possible. And so, um, thank you everybody. And again, just going back to how relationships matter. I think just the relationship that school has built with those kids, the district has built with their staff um has this is it showing right now. So great work again serving kids the best um way possible in the in the way that they deserve. Um that's
020really I think my big things for the past couple weeks. I'm still trying to transition from getting my life together from break and holidays and the craziness of that. So, um hopefully I will have it somewhat together by next time and be able to share about going into some schools. So, [snorts] thanks everyone and have a great evening. Thank you. um back at the beginning of January when school started, I got to go to um Thornton Middle School and hang out with the um English language teachers uh looking at how they're implementing their new curriculum. Um and they they have been doing a lot of great things there. Um it's been real helpful for them. they have a very impacted student body and it really helps to have the structure from this curriculum to help
021them. So I got to spend time with them and then uh I have to say I went to my negotiations for the last time on um that following uh Wednesday. I am going to be stepping back from a lot of my um not responsibilities. There's nothing that says I have to do what I've been doing. I've just enjoyed doing what I've been doing. But um I do have a new job and that is I am the legislature representing House District 29 at the capital. So um you know it's kind of that in between thing with this and the board. I'm committed to the Adams 12 school district still and I'm not running out the door quite yet. But um just to let you know, it might be a little harder to get a hold of
022me um or at least pin me down. So anyway, that's what's new with me. I'm not on the education committee in case you're wondering. I'd love to be on the education committee, but two things. Uh one, it was kind of full already because I did come in kind of late. Um I'm replacing Representative Shannon Bird. Um and the other thing is it's I'm not giving up my role on the school board. They feel it's a conflict of interest, but that doesn't mean I can fight like you know what for you guys for public education down at this state house and it's going to be a spicy season to say the least. I kind of hope that maybe I have a little bit more say because I am down there. Um, I also just want to
023put out also to the Thunder Vista community and the staff and the district staff and the families on how I'm so appreciative how everybody's pulled together to deal with a difficult situation. Um, it's, you know, we get difficult situations every once in a while in AMS 12 and I feel like, um, because of past experiences and how we handle that, I think it has been handled to the best that it could be. um not the outcome we want, but there are things that are just beyond our control. So, uh my thanks goes out to all of you and that's all I have. Now, we are on to general comment. Public comment. >> Good evening. The board welcomes public comment to learn about the preferences and concerns of the Adams 12 five-star community. Each speaker will
024have three minutes. Please use the microphone and state your name and city of residence before beginning your comments. Please give any handouts or information you would like to share with the board to Ryan Parker. A threeminut timer will be set for each speaker. Please keep an eye on the timer and kindly conclude your remarks when your time has expired. Our first speaker tonight is Jason Herman. [applause] microphone here. Uh, hi, my name is uh Jason Herman. I'm an electives teacher at uh at Horizon High School. Um, and uh I've come come to talk about uh our electives programs and a lot of others uh have come as well. Um, our concern is that we're losing electives, teachers and programs uh at our comprehensive high schools. Um, and it's it's been happening, you know, quite a
025bit over the last uh last few years. Um, of course, we know we're a district of declining enrollment, so that's of course going to be part of the attrition, but uh we also see that each year we continue to offer more and more CTE classes. Um, sometimes classes that we actually offer already in the conference of high schools. Um, so that that's uh that's a that's a very big concern to us. Um, I, for example, I'm currently teaching. I have five preps right now just to maintain a full-time position, and it's exhausting. Um, I, uh, I love teaching. I love what I do, but it's really exhausting. I literally have no time to do anything but plan. But I'm just, like so many other teachers, so many other electives teachers, I should say, just trying
026to scramble to to to maintain a full-time position. Um, like I said, it it's very difficult when you hear that we're a district of declining enrollment and we keep adding classes, sometimes duplicate classes. Um, and I know I've talked to I've talked to some people in this room about this before. Um, several of you. Um, and uh, I just figured I'd do it in a little more official capacity tonight. Um, but it's it's very difficult. This is a sleepless time for electives teachers at the comprehensive high schools. um we lose sleep for probably 3 months. Um um I had a lot of my colleagues that couldn't make it and to be honest some were afraid to come um you know for various reasons uh to to kind of express their feelings and kind of lost
027track of what I was saying here. Um, but you know, tomorrow it and it's and it's hard because tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, we're going to watch most of those of us at Ryzen High School, we're going to watch the the future forward staff come in, set up their table, and essentially tell our the students at our school, the students we love, the students we work with every day, don't take your electives here, take them over here. I mean, they don't say exactly that, but that's the message in a nutshell. And it's very frustrating because we don't have that ability. We can't go and recruit students. We we we get our hands slapped if we even try to go into a middle school. Um and it just it's incredibly it's just a terrible feeling to feel
028that we are so supported by our school. I'm so supported by Horizon. Our staff is amazing. Our administrators are amazing. The people that I get to work with every day are amazing. We just don't feel the support from our district. And it it's it's extremely frustrating. And I just I really don't know how else we should feel when we just see this happen the last three or four years. So So um like I said, I just want to come here and say that in more official capacity. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jason. [applause] >> I'll just lay this thing down. I forget where I took it out. >> Our next speaker is uh Leanne Tada. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Leanne Terrada. I am a former Spanish teacher at Horizon High School and I'm currently
029an instructional coach. First of all, I'd like to congratulate Chris on your award. So proud that you represent us at our district. And I would like to acknowledge that Jason is actually an award winner. He will be receiving an award next month for excellence in teaching at the Colorado Congress for Feign Lang uh language teachers. Um, and I just wanted to acknowledge that because he is an award-winning educator who takes students every other year to Germany and has built up a program that cannot sustain him having a full-time role. And that is why he's teaching world history this year. It is very difficult for our teachers to maintain this level of quality. Our programming in the theater, for example, we have a reputation for the best shows. you come to our show, this is what
030people pay big money to go see other places. And our students are putting on a fantastic show with the help of our staff and our theater teacher is concerned that she's not going to be able to to rebuild her program, concerned about um just funding uh and not being able to continue at the same quality. She was not able to be here because they're in the middle of rehearsals for Cinderella. There is a lot happening for our teachers, our business teachers. So we had a teacher retire. They were not able to um continue his role. So our two business teachers are really doing the work of three business teachers plus the computer science teacher. It is a very difficult time. We have a great uh administrator Erica Fleman has really supported the work of electives
031but we are still not able to do the type of work that needs to be done. they were able to hire an art teacher and at the same time, you know, part-time and and people are afraid of their jobs. It's I mean, it's only January and people do not know what this will mean. My moving into an instructional coach really saved the department because it is declining enrollment. It is a very difficult time and I do want to say that the way it's structured in terms of scheduling um does affect the way our students have um can take electives and we are automatically dropped out of the scheduling because they have to have that hour to go. They have to have the hour to come back. They're barely eating their lunch, rushing to another class.
032And who gets dropped? Is there a conversation with the student? It really um is affecting us in a big way. And when I walk around classrooms, our classes are the ones where students are moving, they're laughing, they're interacting, they're having skills. Spanish, German, and French are skills that is really university work. It's one of the only classes that from level one you're actually getting credit because our students skip out of other classes because they're building proficiency and developing competencies for the at the global level. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Liam. [applause] >> Our next speaker is Ginger Zancella. >> [applause] >> Bonswire. I am French teacher at Horizon High School with my fabulous colleagues. I'm Junior Zenanella. Um, I've been with the district for 23 years. Uh, I'll focus on the past,
033the present, and the future. So, the past when I got hired by the district, I came into a thriving world language department, 12 Spanish teachers, three French teachers, three German teachers. I was promised a career, a lifelong career. I stayed with you for 20 years so I could earn my stipend. And now I'm 23 years in and I'm looking at not having a full-time job. I've got four preps as Jason does and now I've already been told that I probably will not have a full-time job next year. So I must take on something else. Should I become licensed and certified in something else? I'm a 52-year-old 23y year teacher. Do you want me to go back to school? Do you want me to put more money into my education? I've already put thousands of dollars
034into becoming high highly qualified so I could teach Spanish and now that was taken away from me. So now I'm only certified to teach French. I'm not going back to school. I can't afford it. So now I'm looking at what am I going to do? I'm nowhere near retirement. What's my future going to be? So I thrive. I try to do my program. I currently run the French National Honor Society. I'm hosting the French immersion program next week on the 27th at here at the ESC. All the French teachers are bringing our kids here to compete. So again, we're trying to build our program. I'm also running a trip to Paris, Barcelona. I do whatever I can. I'm always at the school. And here I'm looking I'm being told you don't have a future. You
035all are telling me that I don't have a future with Horizon High School. Where am I supposed to go? Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Our next speaker is Wendy Dre. >> Thank you. Good evening. I just wanted to echo some of the sentiments expressed by my colleagues tonight on the matter of CTE. Um, I know I start by saying I uh I'm not here to badmouth CTE. I really uh value and respect CCTE programs. In fact, um myself in high school, I benefited uh from an occupational work experience program that truly got me through high school. Um I've had family members benefit from CTE programs and I've seen students benefit greatly as well. Um so I don't want to in any way diminish the work that they're doing. I think it's very valuable and we
036should continue to support that. However, um I do feel that CTE programs and enrollment are uh best serving our students and the community when they're targeted when they're targeted to um students who need them, who can benefit from them. Um and mostly students who um if it's pursuing some kind of a certification or a a career trae trajectory um rather than say um taking electives that are offered in our buildings um at another school or um when kids take the three pass the two passing periods and they're gone three um three periods of the day, it makes it very difficult for students to fit things like electives into their classrooms. Um, and I personally obviously highly value electives as as a German language instructor at Legacy High School. Um, however, that um, my my German
037studies truly shaped the whole trajectory of my future. Um, I didn't even know that I liked German. I [clears throat] didn't know I I even cared about it, that I that I would someday speak German. It wasn't something that ever even dawned on me. Um, and then it altered the the entire course of my future. And I think that's the value of electives is that students sign up for something thinking that sounds neat. That sounds interesting. Let's see what that is. And it can radically alter the course of their life. They can find a new passion that they never knew that they had. Um and for me that's something that was truly lifealtering. I have students from Legacy who have um who've gone on our exchange program and made lifelong friends. I have kids who
038continue to go back and stay with their original host families. I have um kids who have enrolled in a program to get their bachelor's degree for free in Germany. I just had my first of those students graduate recently with his bachelor's degree in economics for free. Zero tuition he paid um and stayed in Germany because he loved it so much. Um and I have two others who are now in Germany preparing to start their bachelor's um studies for free. And this is something that those students would never have um had on their radar had they not opted to take an elective had they not said, "Oh, wow, German, that sounds different. I think I'll give that a try." Um they would never have had that experience. So, I think it's very important that we continue
039to support our electives while finding a balance with CTE to make it work so that it doesn't impact our livelihoods as well. Thank you. >> Thank [applause] you. Our final speaker is Deanna uh Guswin. [applause] >> Good evening. I'm extremely proud of my colleagues, but I am going to read a little bit and probably add a little bit more. Just want to make sure that I'm very succinct tonight. Um good me good morning, good evening, members of the board. First, I want to thank you all for letting me speak tonight, but also um for your service on the board. Uh my name is Diana Gusman. I am a professional school counselor at Horizon High School. I joined Adams 12 in the year 2000 and spent my first two years at Thornton High School teaching science.
040I then moved over to Shadow Ridge Middle School, taught 8th grade science and math. Um, and I opened that school for three years, then moved over, made my way home to Horizon High School in 2006, taught 15 years of science there, and then moved over into a school counseling position about six years ago. Um, as a school counselor, I support my students in three general domains. that is academic development, social emotional well-being, and then um career exploration, which is why we're here tonight. Um excuse me. Um what I have noticed recently or have seen is a significant and widespread shift in educational offerings away from our college preparatory models toward CTE concentrated offerings. I'm not here to speak again like some of my colleagues have said negatively about CTE. I know the data. The data
041is good. I know that students who attempt one or more concurrent enrollment credits in high school are dramatically more likely uh excuse me to metriculate to college within one year after graduation. Okay. I also know that n nearly 79% of students graduating okay this is not sorry I'm just going to talk freely. There we go. This is going to be better. Um, basically the biggest thing that I am noticing is the messaging that we're sending and the students that are in those pathways. We have students that are collegebound students who are entering in those pathways and then they are getting pigeonhold in those pathways. We have students who are not being able to get into those pathways who are want to get into those pathways. CTE is designed for trades. Those trades are for students
042to learn skills and then get employment right out of high school. Some of those CTE trades that are there that are enticing a lot of our students are not serving that. There's a lot of our students who one very good example because I want to make sure I talk about examples is I have students that are in the EMT and the um the uh firefighting pathways. They cannot secure employment until they're 21. So, we're not really serving those students. they're not getting directly into the college pathway or the the trade pathway. I really messed this up y'all. I'm sorry. [laughter] The second big piece of it, and I know I'm running out of time, is that our collegebound students way too often are they taking these programs, okay? They are taking these programs as their
043elective. One big thing that they are missing in this is their world language. If they are collegebound ath or collegebound students, they need a world language. they are now missing that and they are having to pay extra for that when they go into college. Okay. So, we're setting them up for not having >> Sorry, your time has expired. >> Thank you. [applause] >> So, Lori, if I can, I just want to jump in and share a little bit of uh my current thinking as I listen to all of uh the comments made here today. I think one of the pieces that doesn't seem to be understood that's driving this because I think the issues I hear uh being raised here today I hear being raised in communities throughout our state and by other superintendent our
044state for this group of freshmen or maybe it's this year of sophomores has mandated as a graduation requirement that you either have um a CTE credential or you have 12 hours of concurrent enrollment. the CTE credential needs to be in a high demand industry uh is the other caveat to that or the third piece to meet this requirement is to have a relevant work-based learning experience. The latter one I'll just say is very time inensive in terms of marrying kids with an employer who can give them a relevant work-based experience. So, I think what a lot of districts are doing are trying to find ways to meet this new state requirement that we either need to get kids up to at least 12 concurrent uh enrollment credits um by the time they're graduating seniors or
045we've got to get them a CTE credential in a high demand industry. That's a state requirement and I think a lot of districts are struggling with that. I do uh want to dig into this issue deeper with you all because I feel like even with that mandate I'm u concerned about hearing about things like duplication of programs and I wonder um why that's happening where that's happening and if there's opportunities to change that. I also think it reinforces some of what I was saying on the front end, which is we're um we're getting squeezed a lot of ways right now in Adams 12, not just Adams 12, but other districts in the state. Several of you mentioned declining enrollment, and that definitely complicates the equation. We thought we'd be down 450 kids this year. We
046were down 1350 students. We get $11,770 per student. And so when you're bleeding out 900 more than you thought, it's a huge financial impact. We project we'll be down another 800 next year. And so we're going to have to balance our budget for next year based upon 1,700 fewer kids than what our budget last year was planned around. So that's a challenge. Um we also with our override felt like the most important place to invest was in competitive compensation for staff given that we're next to last in our regional market for staff. And I feel like that's uh a commitment that we can't back away from. If we do that, we're going to have other challenges that come similar to what you've described here in terms of people wanting to come and to stay. So,
047a lot of our investment in this Milvie override program, as you know, is around CTE and compensation and it's because of state pressure and requirements and market realities that we have been only above 27J in compensation in this regional market and we can't allow that to sustain. If we go down the path of what the governor proposes, which is to take $ 8.1 million of SOT money out of the mix, and we go from three-year averaging to two-year averaging, all of those things become even more difficult to solve and having the right balance for our kids because the electives are very much an important part of a student's experience for a whole lot of reasons. Whether it's getting them ready for college requirements and not having to take a makeup class or a remedial class,
048just having breath of experience. For many of our students, the one and only time they'll have that chances in high school. And we don't want that to be lost. We don't want high-quality educators um to be employed less than full-time and having to seek out other jobs because of that. But it is a complicated piece to solve. One of my next steps will be um to huddle up with our high school principles, not as the last step, but as a starting step, just to get more insight about some of these scheduling issues you're talking about. I frankly wasn't aware um that there had been so much fragmentation in terms of some of the classes you're teaching and having four or five preps. So, it's helpful learning for me. I want to work with others to
049see what we can do um to mitigate some of these impacts you're talking about. And at the same time, I just want to acknowledge it's a complicated puzzle because of all these other financial pressures, enrollment pressures, and state requirements. >> Thank you. Thank you guys for being here and sharing your experience. Okay, on to my uh board committee liaison reports. Uh Dak, >> thank you, President Goldstein. Um Dak had a meeting um this uh last week. I was unable to attend but I did get the minutes from the meeting and I can take the team through uh the current updates. Number one uh within the sack workstream the sack principal survey is nearly 100% um submitted back from the principles. So we have had a great response rate. So I want to thank all the
050principles um for responding to the request uh to to fill out the surveys and and to submit them. This will be really very helpful for for the SAC team and for the for for DAC in general obviously. Uh number two uh the UIP workstream um has really good DAC representation. Uh we have at least three members going to to meetings currently uh ICM and IL meetings. Um so that's really good to see. Um and finally, number three, the spending priorities work stream. Uh the draft for the 2526 uh SAC spending survey is currently being reviewed by the team uh with a release date of January 28th planned release date. So progress is being made. Um looking forward to the next meeting and ongoing progress. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um fact is um Alexis Marsh
051Holen and she is not here. LRPAC um I was unable to attend but I can give you an idea of some of the things that were talked about based on the minutes. Um there was a Thunder Vista fire update. Um there's some renovations going on at our pool, the V-Mac, and um talked about the furniture projects and new construction. talked about um what's going to be done this summer in terms of construction and the timeline for the kickoff for the 2026 design and 2027 construction um IT and finance and uh that was the two hours. Um we'll talk a little bit later about moving forward what our committees look like. >> Yep. So, I just want to let you know one of those items that Lori referenced will be coming back to you for more
052education and then likely for action later this spring and that's improvements at VMAC. We have a group that uh is passionate about playing underwater hockey at the highest levels and there are certain conditions that have to be present in terms of the pool to perform in those kinds of competitions. and they're interested in donating uh multi-million uh dollars to make some improvements to that pool that will allow them to do their thing. We'll support um our renovation needs of the facility will actually reduce how often we have to redo some things there because right now um we know the pool deck and the bottom of that pool is well beyond its useful life and there's lots of patching. But it's a it's unusual and complicated uh sort of arrangement for us. But we also feel
053like after investigating it thoroughly that it's something um that we feel like can hold together. So there'll be more information coming to you likely on the months ahead about that. >> Thank you. On to monitoring reports. I will entertain a motion to acknowledge that the board has received a monitoring report as of January 21st, 2026 for the period July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025 and finds the superintendent's interpretations are reasonable and supported by data that is relevant, justified, and complete. >> So moved. >> Second. And I need to say it was the internal monitoring report for operating limitations policy 2.9 charter schools. Miss Monaco, >> sorry. >> No worries. We're all good. >> Okay. [snorts] Hi everyone. Uh I'm Audrey Monaco. I'm the director of charter partnerships. Um and last month um our charter
054leaison for special populations, Kellyanne Scott and I presented to you um regarding the changes to our internal monitoring processes. Um and also the way that we are reporting this data to you the board as well as the public. Um it during that presentation we uh gave an overview of our star report as well as our annual report template. Uh today I'm here to present the monitoring report 2.9 which is part of that annual reporting process and those annual report templates are part of this monitoring report. uh annual or monitoring report 2.9 is meant to inform you the board as well as the public of our charter school compliance and performance um for the previous year. So in this case uh school year 2425 and I want to note that much of this monitoring report is
055actually the same as in years past um with the addition of some more information on our internal in our internal monitoring systems. [clears throat] Um so an overview of some of the things that have remained the same. Um the charter still schools have the same process for accessing our district policies. Um and they are notified in the same ways of uh new policies or any updated policies. Um they also have been granted waiverss through their uh to some of our district policies um that include replacement plans. Um and these are granted through that renewal process um and contract adoption uh [clears throat] for this monitoring report period. Um the charter schools have followed district policy as well as their replacement plans outlined in those waiverss. Um additionally last year uh New America Thornton was the
056only charter who participated in the renewal process. uh they were granted a two-year renewal and they also had additional requirements outlined in their attachment 11 to their contract. Um the school also requested district waiverss um and they are included in their finalized contract attachments. Um all of our other charter schools are currently and last year serving um their 5-year contract term. The section of monitoring report 2.9 that is a little different uh and updated is the um section in regard to our monitoring processes of the charter office. The highlights of that um we did implement Anvil's web-based software um which is a centralized hub for our charter schools to submit their uh required reports and district staff and charter staff can see in real time their compliance um with all of those reports. This year
057you might have heard us um mention report well. It is the same um same type of software. Charter schools are submitting their reports to us um and we are both able to see on district side and school side um in real time if they're complying with those required report deadlines. Um and I want to note that uh report well does have integration with Google calendar as well as Microsoft Outlook and that has been a big gamecher in our schools meeting a lot of those deadlines. Um just the software in general has really supported that process. Um the other parts that uh have been implemented we are a team of two now. We have the myself as the director as well as Kelly an our charter liaison. um and bringing that charter leaison on. She has
058done an excellent job of um creating a pathway to notify schools when there are reports that are due special population specific as well as internal deadlines that they need to meet. Um and her monthly monitoring processes have really helped the charters maintain a compliance in those special populations areas. Uh we also wanted to note the STAR process was finalized last year and published um as well as the annual report template that you saw in December and you will see again linked in monitoring report 2.9 tonight. The annual reports for each of our four charter schools are linked in the monitoring report and they really focused on the school overview which is our first section. Um, we wanted to really highlight what makes this charter school unique and different from other Adams 12 schools. Um, we
059also wanted to give an overview of what the school population looks like to show their accessibility to the community as well as their commitment to diversity. Um, we really focused on three big buckets. Educational performance, operational performance, and financial performance. Um, I do want to note that Stargate, Prospect Ridge, and uh, Westgate Community School, their templates look very similar. You will notice that New America's uh, educational performance section does look a little bit different, and this is due to the fact that they are an alternative education campus. Um, there you'll notice there is a lot of uh, SPF data that is reported in that section. Um, and because they are a AEC, they have additional metrics. Um, so some of their charts look a little bit different. Um, and we've tried to really intentionally explain
060that difference in the uh descriptions in the annual report. When you look at the educational performance section of the annual report, you'll notice that the first slide has indicators. Um, each section, educational, operational, and financial, has a corresponding rubric that helped our office answer those indicators. Um, if an indicator is marked in yellow, it should have a corresponding comment as to why there is a finding. And I will say that um for uh school year 2425, the only areas for our four charter schools that you might see a comment um is in that educational performance section. And if there is a comment, the um the issue has been resolved in school year 2425. So the operational sections as well as the financial sections did not have any significant findings. Um the operational section really looks
061at the governance reporting, staff credentiing and how well the schools are complying with safety um standards for facilities as well as health and safety and security. Um none of our schools had any significant concerns in those areas. Um and then our financial sections look at short-term metrics and how they're doing in real time as well as long-term metrics and how they are um sustaining that financial viability. And um based on uh the uh analysis that our finance department did of the school's audits, we did not find any significant findings in the financial section either. So, I did want to highlight that um those new reports are linked in there. If you have any questions or any concerns that you uh would like some answers to, feel free to reach out to myself um or to
062B and we can definitely provide you those answers. Um does anybody have any questions about monitoring report 2.9? >> I guess so. Okay, great. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Director Anan Wuo, >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas, >> I. >> Director Batistelli, >> I. >> Director Goldstein, >> I. >> Okay. Internal monitoring report operating limitations policy 2.5 asset protection. I will entertain a motion to acknowledge that the board has received a monitoring report as of January 21st, 2026 for the period July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025 and finds the superintendent's interpretations are reasonable and supported by data that is relevant, justified, and complete. >> So move. >> Second, >> Miss Brandt. >> All right. I'm just Pull it up here. All right. Thanks for having me. Um, I'm Molly Brandt. I'm honored to
063serve as your chief operating officer and I'm here to talk about our monitoring report 2.5 asset protection. Uh as part of the 2.5 board policy, the items we're really going to go through is items around ensuring the district adequately maintaining our district facilities, equipment, technology, infrastructure, etc. We're going to talk a little bit about purchasing policies, protecting property, and uh develop or approval processes for purchases exceeding 500,000. That is kind of the overview of the key points of this board policy. The board policy has 10 um different uh subcategories that I'll review. Our monitoring period similar to the last monitoring report was last school year. So that is July 1, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. All right. So the first one second the first [snorts] policy um is that we shall not fail to ensure
064against theft and casualty loss of property owned or used by the district and we shall not fail to ensure and indemnify against liability losses to board members, staff and organization itself. Um happy to report both of these items are within compliance of our monitoring report. We have insurance policies in in policies in place. Um, and we have policies that cover board members, staff, and organizations for acts of different litigation, settlements, and judgments against them. [snorts] Under board policy 2.5.2, this is the only item of the 10 items covered in this policy that is out of compliance. Um you are aware of this from I came to a board study with Margie Ammon our director of facility design and we talked through um the reason for this. I'll explain it uh shortly today as well and
065our plans since that meeting um of how we will um identify uh a pathway forward. So this is um the projected cost of total deferred maintenance shall not exceed 10% of the total value of district facilities replacement costs. So currently the amount of deferred maintenance exceeds 20% of the cost of replacement of all of our district facilities. So therefore exceeding our limit established in this policy currently under 2.5.2. Um the reason for this is that um a couple things. First data the cost to replace district facilities is coming in just over $2 billion um as estimated by our VFA facility software. Um the software also estimates our deferred maintenance cost to be 400 just over 440 million uh which equates to a percentage of 20.81%. that exceeds the 10%. Some historical data since 2022 we
066have been out of compliance. Um every year averaging uh that percentage between 12 and 14%. Uh this year uh it jumped to 20% uh the the reason for that is because this is the first year reporting data out of our VFA software system. In all the prior years we were reporting out of a system called Costlab. And the difference between the two systems that account for this jump in percentage that you see is twofold. One, uh there's different methodologies that VFA has assumptions within its software. Um the inclusion of soft cost is one of those which was not a part of our uh cost lab that will increase the deferred maintenance amount. It's also a all-inclusive systembased approach for several systems rather than a component approach. So costl was a component approach meaning it's the
067um air handler unit as as its singular piece and that's what cost lab used to do for years prior current year and moving forward. It's going to take that systemness into and say the cost of the unit itself plus the items in which you need for the duct work etc for that unit to work. Um so it gives a more accurate uh picture. The other uh reason that our uh percentage has jumped with the switch to VFA is that we also were able to take a really good look at what we've been putting in cost lab assetwise. And there were things we did not track in cost lab that we are tracking currently in VFA to give us a more accurate picture of our true deferred maintenance. This includes things like but aren't limited to
068like landscaping elements, irrigation, playgrounds, scoreboards, dugouts, storage buildings. um other items that we have brought into our district as assets. So with that um I promised the board as we met uh back in November uh early December that we would do a few things to create a pathway forward. Uh we hope to come back to you in the spring with some recommendations. So far we have uh talked to our LRPAC committee our FAT committee uh about this uh 2.5.2 got their recommendations on some pass forward. I've also joined a subgroup of our LRP pack committees to and we are going to in February put three options of new language in front of them to get feedback with that. will also go back to LRPAC and fact before we come to you in the spring with
069a recommendation. So that'll be the plan for getting us in compliance in that area. >> Molly, can I jump in on this one? I'm just mindful about uh the training we just did this weekend on policy governance. And part of what I what I added at the end is that if you're hearing about non-compliance in a monitoring report, there's three reasons, three possible reasons. One is that you have an aspirational policy uh that's not really achievable or reasonably achievable under the circumstances. The second is that you could have an interpretation of what constitutes compliance that is higher than it needs to be to meet the board's expectations that staff has developed. And then the third is that you've got a performance problem with staff. When I think about those lenses on this issue that Molly's
070raised, I would submit that this isn't a performance issue at all. Um, we know that education in Colorado is badly underfunded by studies that show 3.4 to 4.1 billion a year underfunded. For us, it's anywhere from, if we were fully funded, a 17% to a 71% increase in annual funding under those studies. So, we don't have enough money under the system to take care of all of what we want to do, need to do, whether it's maintaining uh electives, sections, and teachers in the way that we once did or in taking care of all of the aging parts of our buildings in the timely schedule that uh facilities folks might recommend. And at the same time, we've kind of pushed our foot to the metal in terms of bond issues over the last from 2016
071to 2014. We've brought in over a billion dollars in uh capital to not only uh build a few facilities, but largely to take care of things that exist. So, I don't believe it's a performance issue to the extent it would be. I think it's only because we don't have sufficient revenue to uh meet all these expectations and and that requires either legislative support or voter approval and um we just don't have the resources we need on the interpretation part. I would submit that our prior use of costlab probably created a misleading data set that um wasn't really accurate in terms of dealing with all of our assets as Molly said and really talking about what truly needs to happen when you have things beyond end of life in your parts and pieces the expenses tend
072to be much greater than what I think cost lab estimated. So I would say if there was an inter interpretation problem, it's looking backwards and using a tool that probably wasn't as robust as it needed to be. And I think we have now solved for that. And VFA gives us more accurate, reliable data. And so then the the top piece is whether this is an aspirational policy. And I believe as it's written now, given what I've just outlined, what I know to be true about our efforts to take care of things and the challenges that I know are true in other districts, I do think uh it's aspirational and it'll be helpful to have um some recommendations from this committee work to bring before you to see if we can get something that I think
073is more dialed in and realistic that you can hold us accountable to. >> Thank you, Chris. The other part of uh section 2.5.2 two that is in compliance is uh that our fund our plant maintenance fund is uh kept to a maximum of 3%. We are currently under that at 0.096% of total replacement costs. That fund sits in the cap reserve fund is about $2 million. So on uh this I'm going to jump in and add a little bit of uh explanation too because my sense is from the training that there's interest um in maybe revisiting more of the board's policies that haven't been changed for a while. The history behind that provision is that there was a tension um between what our business services leadership would advocate for where they often felt like they
074were underresourced and underfunded and that the learning services side of the house always got all the new money and all the love and attention. So they advocated pretty strong with the board to say, "You need to make sure that we can hold on to our money if we don't spend it each year and put it in a contingency fund before learning services persuades the superintendent to give it to them instead." So that was that side of the discussion. And on the other side, there were some board members who worried that we would hide and hoard and put too much money in the facility piece and not invest enough in teaching, learning, compensation, and other parts. So in the end they struck this balance of a maximum of 3% to kind of balance those competing interest.
075>> For 2.5.3 we shall not fail to maintain the plant with due care in a manner that ensures facilities are open 99% of available instructional hours. Happy to report that the district's performance during this monitoring period complied with that statement. Uh we did have one moment with uh Rocky Top Middle in which during this monitoring period we did release kids um about 8 minutes early from their scheduled bell time. That was not due to not maintaining the plant but instead behaviors of students flushing materials through our system that we needed to um come and snake. So that is what happened there. And this is one that next year, given the Thunder V Vista incident, uh we'll have to think uh thoughtfully about the words in this policy. We we don't want to be gaming this
076uh and making it sound like we have compliance if we don't under the terms of the policy and the interpretation. But just as I think about it at first blush really the the trigger language in there is fail to maintain. I think our view is it was failed to be designed and constructed appropriately. And so where does the locus of responsibility fall? You may find us coming back and saying we still re report compliance even though kids were out for a week at Thunder Vista before going to their new four schools. If we land there, I think it's going to be because of that wording and whose responsibility really is it in the end. >> For 2.5.4, we shall not fail to maintain equipment and information technology infrastructure with due care. Um, we complied with
0772.5.4. All CDE required school transportation vehicle inspections were completed prior to transporting students. Um, and everything was compliant through CD's threshold requirements. In addition, our uh core information technology systems had an uptime of 99% or more. For 2.5.2, we are also compliant. shall not make a purchase uh wherein protections have not been given against conflict of interest. We have uh policies in place to protect against conflict of interest ensuring methods and processes for competitive procurement as well. There are known policy violations or anything reported uh during this time frame. 2.5.6 shall not fail to protect against intellectual uh property. Um, we had no loss or damage with regard to our district's intellectual property during this monitoring repair and therefore complied under 2.5.7 shout failed to provide periodic procurement reports to enable our board members to
078monitor purchases, vendors and trends. Um, as per past reporting, we in the same essence we uh reported compliance in this area. This is an area we want to strengthen going forward. Gina Lenir, chief financial officer, and myself have been talking through what that might look like. Uh she is utilizing uh the DAC to I'm sorry, the FAC to run some ideas about what periodic reports might be uh drafted and put in front of you for uh your feedback of how you might like to see this going forward. So do expect that in this monitoring period, so probably this spring. Under 2.5.8, eight. We shall not fail to obtain board approval for property rule or otherwise um in excess of $500,000 that is not already budgeted and/or a part of a bond implementation or override plan.
079Uh we complied with this. There were two purchases that exceeded the $500,000 um mark and that is one Thunder Vista Repairs for their utilities underground and the other one was North Glenn High School's ADA um upgrades for their parking lot and a few uh other places within their building. Both of those came to the board and were approved via decision information reports. uh 2.5.9, we shall not acquire property. Um, of all the bullets that you see on the screen, the district did comply with 2.5.9 and we did not acquire property during this monitoring period. Same thing with 2.5.10, but relinquishing property um and we did not or we did comply with 2.5.10 as we did not relinquish any property during the monitoring period. And with that, I'll take any questions. Any questions? Okay. >> Thank
080you very much. >> Thank you. >> Director Anan Wubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> I. >> Director Batistelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> I. Thank you, Molly. >> Thanks, Molly. >> Okay. On to board business. The amended fiscal year 2025 2026 budget and appropriations resolution. I will entertain a motion to to adopt the amended fiscal year 2025 2026 budget and appropriations resolution as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Hi Gina. Good evening board. The computer almost won. All right. So, um, on the agenda tonight, we're going to do a quick review of the finance calendar as it relates mostly to budget. There's a couple items on there. We're not going to go over all of it, don't worry. Um we're going to talk again about school finance act calculation the impact
081of increases in AV to our budget fiscal year 2526 amended budget highlights some other updates and looking forward to fiscal year 2627 um as we go through please um feel free to stop me and ask questions I'm happy to do so and I expect Chris will love to provide commentary along the way um as is our custom. So, I'm again not going to go through this entirely. This starts in July and this slide goes through December. Um, really the the highlight I want to make is the finance team and the district. We're we you know Aaron calls it the ABCs of budgeting. We're always budgeting constantly. And so this perhap this particular cycle, the amended budget is a um an opportunity the district has to update the did I say adopted? The amended budget. It's
082an opportunity to update the adopted budget you all approved back in June. Back in June, we didn't know our funded pupil count. We didn't know the state revenue. We didn't know our property taxes. There were a lot of things we didn't know back then. And so we didn't know our beginning fund balance. And so this is an opportunity for us to go ahead and adjust the budget based on what we do know now. Um so as you can tell, we're here tonight for the amended budget approval. And then um after hopefully after this week, we're going to start really diving in um as a cabinet team and district on the fiscal year 2627 budget. [clears throat] This is a reminder about what the new school finance act funding looks like. While it looks on the
083surface more complicated than the old one, it's actually way more simple. You can see this is addit addit additive um instead of multiplicative which the old finance act is in the um so right now if you ask me do you know what's our funded pupil count? I think I make everyone crazy by saying, "Tell me more about what you want to know because I could answer that in a several different ways." And so we have the funded pupil count that is used in the old school finance act. That's five-year averaging. Then we have the funded pupil count in the new school finance act. Both of them are used to calculate our funding. The new one does four-year averaging this year. And then there's the phase in period. And so um with and we'll talk more
084about that in a second. So what I want to remind you is as enrollment eventually stabilizes the benefit of averaging will eventually disappear. Now of course we had hoped it would stabilize a little sooner than it is appearing to. Um but eventually as we get to a more stable number we stop losing the benefit of averaging. and so um continued the the school finance act. So the way it works is we take the school finance act of 1994 that has the 5-year averaging and then we add the difference between the new school finance act and the old school finance act. This year we multiply it by 15% and that gives us our fiscal year 2526 total program funding. Here's a little visual of what averaging looks like and how it impacts our funded count. And
085so the bar portion of the graph is our October count funded number. Now that doesn't have any averaging. So that's our straight up number of kids that are enrolled in the district who count towards being funded. And then the green line, which is the one that's a little bit higher for most years, that's the difference between the benefit of averaging and that October count number. So you can see in if I'm angled correctly, 2526 that was a that's a really big gap, right? Um for your averaging, you can see that gap gets smaller. So that's the difference between the benefit we're getting. And you can see like we talked about as our enrollment stabilizes and these are of course projections. If I could tell the future I would probably be doing something else. Um just
086kidding. I love this. Um anyway, um you can see that that benefit starts to go away and I anticipate next year we will add another line that shows the benefit of threeear averaging because I think it's important for you all to have that visual of how that impacts what we're funded. [snorts] I know you guys probably are tired of me talking about this, but I I just think it's really important to just do that reminder. Our revenue as a district is really not impacted by our assessed valuations. So the school finance act we are required to levy 27 mills. Whatever that 27 mills generates is applied towards our total program and the difference is what the state backfills through the state the state share the state equalization. Then we have our mill levy override for
087the 1991 through 2008 mills. We generate 35.4 million. What that means is if AV goes up, the number of mills we assess our homeowners goes down. If if um assess valuation were to go down, then the number of mills we have to charge go up. At the end of the day, we generate 35.4 million. The 2018 mill is a little different. That one gets to grow by inflation. And then the 2025 is a fixed mill, which means that one if AV goes up, we will capture additional revenue. If it goes down, we capture less revenue. So just a little reminder there. [clears throat] Okay. Now, why you're really here. So the um general fund 2526 budget amendment, some of the highlights are that our beginning fund balance was adjusted and increased from what we had
088put in the adopted budget by $ 8.2 million. Most of that increase is a result of higher than expected interest earnings. um we rose the budget and it still came in higher than we had anticipated. And so that accounted um for a portion of it and then while we're doing the amended budget, we're projecting how much do we think will um need to be encumber that's encumbered for this year. Um so those are obligations we've made to buy items that don't come in [clears throat] by June 30th. So we make an estimate based on history and trends. Unfortunately, if they don't come in by June 30th, they have to be expenses in the next year. And so some that came in higher than we had thought. So that's the bulk of the change in fund
089balance. And then when we look at revenue, as you would expect, our 2025 mil levy override passing increases our budgeted revenue by $39.4 million. And then we also made some small adjustments to um state and local grants um some SOT abatements and other revenue to get to that 47.3 million increase in revenue. Our budgeted expenditures grew by 23.7 million and I have a list of where that can all be found. Um a lot of it again is a result of the way the incumbrances worked. And so all that together, when you do the math, our budgeted ending fund balance for the general fund, June 30th, 2026, grew by 31.8 million. And here is a summary of what our adopted budget looks like compared to our amended budget looks like for our projected ending fund balance.
090So the the area I want to highlight the most is unassigned fund balance. So board policy requires that our unassigned fund balance be no less than 4% and no greater than 8% of general fund revenue. That number is approximately 5%. So we've been holding steady at 4% for a bit and now we're around 5%. So still within board policy and for me I think that's a healthy place to be with all the uncertainty [snorts] we have going on. >> So I just want to check um I think seeing fund balance grow by 31.8 $8 million. Uh just given the public comment that we had before, some might say, "What the heck are you doing? Are you making unnecessary cuts and why is that happening?" I really feel like the explanation you gave on the prior
091page is that frankly the biggest game changer is that we passed the override and there's 39.4 million coming in the door and if it weren't for that, it wouldn't be going up by 31.8, it would be going in the red. >> That is correct. That was a very good um explanation and you can see the bulk of the increase to fund balance is in unassigned that 30.6 million um that is the the um made up primarily there were some other changes but the primary change was that increase of money that we don't believe can be spent by June 30th for the 2025 mill that passed. those monies are set aside for work that supports what the voters approved. Um, it could be I mean it's possible that some of that could be tapped into. We
092don't think that it will and it will likely be spent down in the next couple years. All right, moving on to other funds. So each of the funds, we adjusted the beginning fund balance based on the results of our audit um that was presented to you back in November. On the bond redemption fund, we also adjusted the revenue to reflect the property tax revenue once the mills were certified. We now know that number and so we adjusted that as well as updated the investment earnings forecast in the budget. And then for the building fund, that's where we spend our bond proceeds. We adjusted for the investment earnings and um what we believe is going to happen for expenditures throughout the rest of the fiscal year. We are projecting that the fund balance as of June
09330th will be about 61.3 million for the bond fund. [clears throat] Okay. So if you don't have questions about the specific amended budget right now, um I want to give some highlights around legislative action. So, as you all are probably aware, the um general assembly be um convened on January 14th and um they are full steam ahead. So, we will be watching that closely and you will, I'm sure, be receiving updates along the way. The inflation rate was released, gosh, I think that was last Monday, but it could have been Tuesday. Um came in at 2.3%. As late as late December, we were learning from the state economist that they thought it was going to come in at 2.5%. And prior to that, the governor's budget proposal had it at 2.6%. So, while 2 or
0943% feels like a small number, it has a pretty big impact on the revenue forecast in the way it flows through the school finance act. So, we've adjusted our um our projections on what funding will look like for next year. So, just it's it's smaller than smaller than we were thinking. And it's a it's a tough two sides of the coin challenge with inflation, it's better for us to be lower, but from a funding standpoint, it it benefits it benefits us if it's higher. So, um there's that piece. And then we will not know if the triggers for the school finance act moving forward with I call it 1448. You may hear it as 13 to 1320. Um I probably need to just call it the new school finance act because this year it'll have
095a new number. Um and so the triggers that could pause it won't be known until the March economic forecast which is usually around the middle of the month. >> So just to add a little bit more there. I think uh the fork in the road that Gina is alluding to based on these triggers is that the legislature will either be uh in a place of saying this new school finance act which provides more funding for multilingual learners for special needs students and for at risk students measured by poverty. they'll either be in a space of saying economic conditions aren't good enough under those triggers uh to increase the weights and the implementation of that new act and so we'll be at 15% implementation another year and use four-year enrollment averaging for declining enrollment districts. If
096none of those triggers are activated, then they're on track, unless they change the law, which I think they can always do that, too, um to implement uh 1448, the new finance act, at 30% and go to three-year averaging. >> That's correct. And there was a presentation last week that the um they're not projecting that there's a going to be a need to pause, but we won't know until the March economic forecast is out. Looking forward to 2627. I already mentioned that inflation is is going to have a very minimal increase in our per pupil our base per pupil funding. You've been sh you it's already been shared tonight that we are declining in enrollment. We're projecting to be down another 800 enrolled kiddos and that will absolutely impact our revenue. Um just like the state,
097we will be looking forward to the economic forecast in March because it does help us in um in the budgeting process. And then I'm pretty sure you have heard about the governor's proposal to shift a portion of the SOT um specific ownership tax to be completely local share. whereas today we're we're able to keep a component of that around 8.1 million as additional revenue to the district. So we will be watching that very closely. >> And again, I feel like a lot of what I'm saying uh I always think about Ike when I'm saying it, but uh I think there's a number of folks who are newer to the board and may not have heard this. Roughly speaking, when you look at the salary and benefits of an average teacher in Adams 12, that's $100,000
098a year. So if you have an $8.1 million loss in SOT funding, it's 81 teachers. I think that's just a good way of trying to put into perspective what it means. >> That is correct. And some key takeaways. um the the difference between averaging and the benefit of or the benefit of averaging and our actual that is going to continue to decline. Um it's going to cause our revenue to continue to go down. The increases that we're seeing in different areas, the cost to do different programming, those expenses continue to go up. And um the uncertainty I feel like I say this every year or every time I talk about budget. There's just so much uncertainty around what the state will do, what the um federal government will do, and um the different impacts that
099it will have on the district. Um many of my colleagues are calling if there needs to be a cut to K12, don't do it from SOT. reinstitute the budget stabilization factor. And so that is something that we can keep track of. We can apply equally to districts rather than a disproportionate um impact across different districts. So the change in averaging SOT, those are just examples of you're impacting specific districts and it's not being the the budget shortfall is not being equally distributed among other districts. So, um, very challenging. We will continue to monitor the impacts of federal action as well. And that's where I think having that unassigned fund balance in a range maybe a little higher than the 4% is helpful because I think about this past summer where there was so much uncertainty
100around different title funds and whatnot. We have to make decisions before we know what's going to happen. And having that cushion to keep us in a good place is important. >> If I can jump in on that, um, today G and I were both part of a webinar that was play uh, put on by case, which is a school executives group and there was a person from AASA, the American Association of School Administrators on the call, too, who's really familiar with lots of federal legislation. And then beyond everything we've shared, I think there's a lot of worry about a part of the big beautiful bill that allows people to get up to a $1,700 a year tax credit by making donations to scholarship granting or scholarship granting organizations that in turn uh send those revenues
101on to private schools primarily is the risk and concern that people were talking about. I think there's a lot of worry that um Governor Polus is going to opt Colorado into that program. One of the few governors um in the country that I think is planning to and especially to do it sooner rather than later, it seems. And so playing that out a couple of steps, there's worries that starting in the 2728 school year, you might see further erosions to public school enrollment because other folks will use the $1,700 tax credit. Maybe outside organizations make contributions, too. and there will be more and more um financial support or incentives for kids to seek out private school options. So, just another part of the mix. [snorts] >> So, that's the end of my presentation. What questions
102do you all have? >> Any questions? >> I always have a lot of questions, but they tend to be more existential, you [laughter] know, like why no why is the state funding formula this way? But um I I guess what I would say is that it's nice to see some some padding this time around and I'm really grateful to those people who voted yes on the mill levy override for that reason. It's nice to be on the the up instead of the down. >> Think of it as a life jacket >> and a one-time fund life jacket. [laughter] TBD. Okay. Any other comments, questions? Okay. Go ahead and vote. >> Director Anan Wubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> I. >> Director Matastelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> I. >> Okay. On to
103beginning fund balance for the fiscal year amended fiscal year 2025 2026 beginning fund balance resolution. I will entertain a motion to adopt the amended fiscal year 2025 2026 beginning fund balance resolution as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. And uh we already got the presentation on it. >> Director Ananu. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. on to uh Incline Energy Oil and Gas lease agreement. I will entertain a motion to accept the conditions of the oil and gas lease agreement with Incline Energy 3 LLC as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Hello, Miss Shannon. >> Hello. Good evening board. I'm happy to be here tonight for my first official board meeting as your new general counsel. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >>
104So, I thought it'd be helpful to provide an overview of what's contained in this lease and the reasons why our outside council, Matt Surah, who is an oil and gas attorney, has recommended that the board approve this lease. So, we asked uh Mr. Surah to work on negotiating a better lease um with with uh better terms for the district. We received an initial offer from a different company for $4,000 an acre and a bonus payment of $36,476 with an 18% royalty. With Mr. Surah's help. The offer that's that's proposed in the lease tonight is from Incline Energy for $11,500 an acre, which is a bonus a bonus payment, which totals $104,86847, a 20% royalty, and much better terms in for protecting the district's interests. There's two options. If the board decides not to approve this
105this lease, we if we don't lease our minerals, then we end up being forcepled. Mr. Sur doesn't recommend that we be forcepulled because first and foremost, we'll lose out on this bonus payment. Second, we become an unwilling partner in the oil and gas industry. So, for those reasons, he's recommended that the board approve this lease offer. And I would entertain any questions that you have for me. >> So, no matter what we decide or how we support it, it's going to happen one way or the other. >> Correct. the way the way um state law is. >> You did mention on this most recent um incline energy, is that the right name? Okay. Yes. >> That there were better terms for it and I think I did see something to the effect of that um
106>> we could leave that relationship more easily if we needed to. Is that correct? >> Correct. the ones. >> Yeah. On this note. Yeah. >> And as Amira said, it's sort of either get forcepooled and find yourself a partner in the oil and gas industry or do a lease. Those are the options. >> Correct. >> And I just want to put it out there, um, the last time this the board, the Adams 12 board discussed this was the month before I was sworn in. So I and I was there so I at least heard it and there was a lot of angst about um and what direction the board should go in terms of this and they chose to go force pool and um at the time there was a lot of public comment and
107a lot of um feedback given from the community and um I believe this is the same pad that was discussed seven six years ago over by Silver Creek Elementary. And um there's nobody here tonight. There's nobody that's contacted me. I don't know if anybody's contacted the rest of the board. And I have to say um I visited a fracking site a couple months ago with Civotas, which I believe is the company that is doing this, and they showed me around and they showed me really well uh how their operation works and the safety precautions that they have and the monitoring that they have. and and it's a pretty well-run operation with what I felt was a um an environmentally conscious approach. Um and this, you know, since the last time that a board, our board
108discussed this, um there's been a legislation that's mandated a lot of um safety and and environmentally protect um communities. And um it you know it's sad that you know we as a school district have to rely on um money and sometimes some of us have a hard time subconsciously approving but you know here we are talking about cutting $8 million um and so you know this is money and the the industry is willing to do this and there are bad actors in the oil and gas industry but I don't see the ones that hear as that at And [clears throat] so it's just, you know, you have to think of it in terms of, you know, what are we doing with our fiduciary responsibility of whatever money and this is going to happen with or
109without our approval. I mean, so um I don't know. Is there anybody else that has anything to say? Yeah, I was that's what I was going to say. If we're going to be forced into something, might as well financially benefit from it for our schools and kids and Yeah. Yeah, I I remember speaking about six years ago. It wasn't at a board meeting, but I think it was at maybe uh um just Adam's 12 general meeting uh where we got our licenses renewed and uh my kids were at Silver Creek at the time. Um and I remember speaking out against it. Um after I did that, I did talk to colleagues who were civil engineers. Actually in preparation of this decision I spoke with colleagues who were civil engineers and said what do you think
110about oil and gas? This is the situation. They gave me some basic questions to ask but they said I there there are always risk in everything but oil and gas is is very good about reducing the risk and managing the risk and that's what you want to make sure that they can do. Um, and so based on your due diligence and based Lori on on your visiting Simmons, um, I I think that uh they've I'm sorry. I'm sure that they've they have a good risk management process in place uh in regards to health and safety. Um, so if there are any questions, I'm sure we'll get them and we can revisit that through an audit, that sort of thing, bringing them in and speaking to us in the community. >> Okay. Director Anan Wubo. >>
111Hi, >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi, >> Director Batistelli. I >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Thank you, Kathy. >> And thanks to Matt Surah for his work on this, too. >> Okay. Next is an action item, proclamation, Black History Month. I will entertain a motion to adopt the proclamation declaring February 2026 as Black History Month at Adams 12 five-star schools as presented. So moved, >> second. >> Um, this is something we do every year. Um, and then sometimes somebody comes and talks, but I think we all, you know, coming off the heels of Martin Luther King Day, understand the importance of honoring diversity in this district and to continue to honor diversity in this district. So I wholeheartedly recommend this Director Anan Wubo I >> Director Assad Lucas I >> Director Bastelli I >>
112Director Goldstein I >> on to board leaison roles um we are going to review the liaison roles for the district accountability committee the finance and audit committee the long-range planning committee and also um the bargaining team and uh because I'm going to be stepping back from some of my um activities and and others have offered to step up. I appreciate that. Um I believe with the district accountability committee because of his experience with the deck, um Ike has agreed to assume those duties. We're going to do a little shuffling here. Um uh as far as we know, um director Marsh Holson's going to stay on the finance and audit committee. And because I'm stepping back, um from my long range planning, um I believe Amamira is going to step up on that. And then um
113Paula I believe is going to um learn how to be an interestbased bargainer. And are you staying on the deck? >> No, due to time constraints. >> Okay. All right. And uh we talked about other there's other [snorts] commit committees that our district um supports. But these are the ones that are actually board committees that we feel we need to have a liaison for. So um there's really no vote here. Um, any other comments? Okay, on to the next. I will enter the minutes. I will entertain a motion to adopt the minutes of the regular board meeting of December 17th, 2025 as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Comments, questions? Director Anan Luimo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. Consent agenda personnel actions.
114I will entertain a motion to approve the personnel actions as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Go ahead. >> Director Anan Mueebo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> I. >> Director Batistelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> All right. Future agenda items. February 4th is a special community engagement board meeting. it'll be here and I believe the invitations have been going out to the community to encourage and invite them to come and meet with us. February 9th, we'll meet with DTA like we do every year. Um I talked to um the president of DTA, Steve Lash, and he'll um he has uh ideas on the questions. And um I did tell him one thing. I'm going to put this on the record. I said, you know, I've been coming to a
115lot of these meetings over the years, both sides of the equation. I said, and I understand, you know, the concerns that teachers bring up because they do every time. I said, this time, if they brought a couple of solutions to the table along with their concerns, I think that would be very um encouraging for them to do that. And then our next regular board meeting is February 18th. Is there any comments or questions?